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Terrence Steven "Steve" McQueen (March 24, 1930 – November 7, 1980) was a popular American movie actor nicknamed "The King of Cool."

McQueenis father, Terrence William McQueen, a stunt pilot for a barnstorming flying circus, abandoned McQueen and his mother when McQueen was six months old. His mother, Julian, was a young, rebellious alcoholic. Unable to cope with bringing up a small child, she left him with her parents (Victor and Lillian) in Slater, Missouri, in 1933. Shortly thereafter, as the Great Depression set in, McQueen and his grandparents moved in with Lillian's brother Claude on the latter's farm in Slater.

McQueen, who was dyslexic and partially deaf as a result of a childhood ear infection, did not adjust well to his new life. Within a couple of years he was running with a street gang and committing acts of petty crime. Unable to control McQueen's behavior, his mother sent him back to Slater again. A couple of years later, when McQueen was 12, Julian wrote to Claude asking that McQueen be returned to her once again, to live in her new home in Los Angeles, California. Julian, whose second marriage had ended in divorce, had married a third time.

This would begin an unsettled period in McQueen's life. By McQueen's own account, he and his new stepfather, "locked horns immediately." McQueen recounted him as "a prime son of a bitch", who was not averse to using his fists on both McQueen and his mother. As McQueen began to rebel once again, he was sent back to live with Claude a final time. At age 14, McQueen left Claude's farm without saying goodbye and joined a circus for a short time, after which he slowly drifted back to his mother and stepfather in Los Angeles, and resumed his life as a gang member and petty criminal. On one occasion, McQueen was caught stealing hubcaps by police, who handed him over to his stepfather. The latter proceeded to beat McQueen severely, and ended the fight by throwing McQueen down a flight of stairs. McQueen looked up at his stepfather and said, "You lay your stinkin' hands on me again and I swear, I'll kill ya." After this, McQueen's stepfather convinced Julian to sign a court order stating that McQueen was incorrigible and remanding him to the California Junior Boys Republic in Chino Hills, California.

In 1947, McQueen joined the United States Marine Corps and was quickly promoted to Private First Class and assigned to an armored unit.

In 1952, with financial assistance provided by the G.I. Bill, McQueen began studying acting at Sanford Meisner's Neighborhood Playhouse. After several roles in productions including Peg o' My Heart, The Member of the Wedding, and Two Fingers of Pride, McQueen landed his first film role in Somebody Up There Likes Me, directed by Robert Wise and starring Paul Newman. He made his Broadway debut in 1955 in the play A Hatful of Rain, starring Ben Gazzara.

McQueen's first breakout role would not come in film, but on TV. Elkins successfully lobbied Vincent M. Fennelly, producer of the Western series Trackdown, to have McQueen read for the part of a bounty hunter named Josh Randall in a new pilot for a Trackdown companion series. McQueen appeared as the Randall character in an episode of Trackdown, working opposite series lead Robert Culp, after which McQueen filmed the pilot episode. At 29, McQueen got a significant break when Frank Sinatra removed Sammy Davis, Jr. from the film Never So Few and Davis' role went to McQueen. Sinatra saw something special in McQueen and ensured that the young actor got plenty of good close-ups in a role that earned McQueen favorable reviews. McQueen's character, Bill Ringa, was never more comfortable than when driving at high speed — in this case at the wheel of a jeep.

After Never So Few, director John Sturges cast McQueen in his next movie, promising to "give him the camera." The Magnificent Seven (1960), with Yul Brynner, Robert Vaughn, Charles Bronson and James Coburn, became McQueen's first major hit and led to his withdrawal from Wanted: Dead or Alive. McQueen's focused portrayal of the taciturn second lead catapulted his career.

McQueen was married three times: to Neile Adams, Ali MacGraw, and Barbara Minty. He had two children with Adams (Terry and Chad). MacGraw stated in her autobiography, Moving Pictures, that she had a miscarriage during her marriage to McQueen.